It started with a strange message from Harmon: "It's not just us vs. them. Beach."

So TRS and I went to Lincoln Beach park. Had heard on the radio last night—when I could still get a signal—that there was a whole nest of them at Lincoln Beach, and they're different from the rest. They had sentries and scouts. Not acting like zombies. They're organized. But Harmon said the beach, and this had to be what he meant. Maybe he figured the nest would keep people away so we could find the message he left for us at the beach.

TRS told me about the UAP1, Undead Apocalypse Protocol. The people who were there at Omaha when the breakout first happened. Good thing, too. But TRS wondered how they knew to be there. Quite a coincidence. Not just us vs. them. Maybe that's Harmon's way of saying it's not just us vs. the zombies, but us vs. Protocol. TRS and I start kicking around some theories: maybe Protocol didn't just happen to be there. Maybe they started this whole thing. Maybe they wanted it to happen.

In a hollow log we found the next message: "I'm with them. You can't trust Protocol."

Maybe we were right. And Harmon's with Protocol? He's working with them? Trying to bring them down from the inside.

Then it hits us at the same time: Harmon's one of them. One of the zombies. This would explain why he won't make direct contact with us. Still, he's not like the rest of them. His still got his faculties. His memories. His self. He's still who he was. Still Harmon. Maybe he's a different kind of zombie. A hybrid. Maybe he's from Protocol's first wave, the one that went wrong. TRS thinks Harmon was a lab rat. Maybe he used to be with Protocol, but crossed them somehow and was deliberately infected. But the hybrids got out and now it's not us vs. the zombies. It's us and the zombies vs. Protocol.

Whatever Protocol's up to, their experiment got out of hand. Or so it seems. Are they vulnerable? How many of the hybrids are there?

TRS and I started this pretending theme recently, the zombie apocalypse. But today when we went out, I wanted to expand the storyline. I introduced some plot points, and then he went with it. We started uncovering and inventing elements of the story together, seamlessly. I tried to lead him as subtly as I could, and he'd pick up on something, and the story would race ahead. It was really cool. Afterward he said it was almost like we had telepathy.

Usually I'm pretty lame. If I had my way I think I'd rather sit around reading and playing on my phone more than anything else. TRS would like me to do way more with him than I do. Well, I could talk for hours about how much I think I suck, but maybe that wouldn't actually be pleasant or productive?

People arriving at the safe house last night told us about black vans converging on Seattle. We can only assume this is Protocol. Then a text from Harmon to meet him in the dog park. (We hypothesize that zombies—but not the hybrids—are kept away by dogs and maybe cats? Something about the smell?) While TRS checks it out, I discover some graffiti on a park bench: "Weller." I meet up with TRS, who says he saw a hybrid in a tree. When he went to investigate, the hybrid was gone, but he found a note. All it said was "Don't trust him." TRS saw a hybrid running down an alley.

We spotted a black van with something that looked like a revolving radar thing on top. Follow it or follow Harmon (if that's who the hybrid was)? TRS thought following Harmon was more important. No sign of him in the alley, but we saw the same radar things on houses in the alley. Protocol? That would mean they'd been established in Seattle since before the outbreak in Omaha. Huh? Whatever it meant, we had to get out of there. We couldn't afford to be spotted and identified. We made our way up the hill, where the van had gone. I received a text from a number I didn't recognize. "Overlook" is all it said.

TRS said, "I know what that means. Follow me." Near the tunnel entrance, behind locked gates and doors, a rattling. TRS convinced something (someone?) down there. Zombies? Hybrids? Protocol? We went through the tunnel that goes over I-90 and ends up at Lake Washington. In the tunnel, we spotted this graffiti on a mural, but we didn't agree on what it meant.

I thought it was telling us about a general in Seattle. Some military leader with plans in the city. TRS thought it was a phone number: 206 (the area code—or general—number of Seattle)-1919. I tried it. Just a recording saying the number wasn't in service. At the overlook at the end of the tunnel we saw three black vans on the side of the highway. TRS thought he saw a gunman in the back of one. Back into the tunnel.

I had a funny feeling. We made our way back to the bench where I had seen "Weller" earlier. Someone (Harmon?) had added a word to it: "General." As usual, we have more questions than answers. But something's building. Something's happening.